Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NOK) Tops India’s Consumer Rankings

Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) once again is sitting at the top of the list for India’s top lifestyle categories. This time the report comes from the market researcher Nielsen Co. through its new Nielsen India Consumer Rankings.

The company launched its list on Wednesday and Nokia sits at the top of the telecom sector. It had been declared as the preferred mobile handset brand, followed by its competitors, Samsung Electronic Ltd. and Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s Blackberry phones.

From Nielsen’s company rankings, Indian consumers will now have an opportunity to see the top brands and services in six lifestyle categories. This includes the preferences among urban consumers for smartphone apps, online retailing sites, mobile phones and operators, books and international travel.

The first round of Nielsen India consumer rankings were based on the popularity and consumer experience with top brands; the rankings come from 2012’s last quarter.

The Nielsen company website will have the rankings and it will also be available via a downloaded app on Android phones.

Piyush Mathur, president of Nielsen India, said via livemint.com of the new rankings, “While we have always provided uncommon consumer insights for our clients, with this initiative we are taking insights from cities across the country, and giving back to consumers.”

This new consumer application and interface represents a new direction for Nielsen as it enters the consumer arena. Previously, it has just worked on the client side. From these consumers rankings, Nielsen is looking to directly engage with consumers.

For India, the lifestyle categories are emerging segments and Nielsen wants to review consumers’ interests for these categories.

The nod to Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) comes after the company had recently been named India’s most trusted brand for a third straight year.

The Brand Trust commissions the study and annually lists India’s 1100 Most Trusted Brands in 211 categories. The report comes from comprehensive primary research based on 61 attributes called the Brand Trust Matrix. The research is conducted through 2,505 influence-respondents in 16 cities; it generates 3 million-plus datapoints from 13,000 hours of research, reported The Economic Times.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V)’s phone has had a lot of appeal in India, on Monday, Nokia’s senior vice president India, Middle East & Africa (IMEA), D Shivakumar, said the company will make its Windows-based Lumia smartphones more affordable for IMEA region customers. These consumers obtain their devices via an open-distribution model not operator driven. Nokia sees this as a growing area for its phones.

Over the last year, the company has introduced eight Lumia devices with a wide price-point range. Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) continues working closely with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to take its phones to new markets at different prices.